Menu

Archive | 13/06/2015

Despite growing pressure to address the tragedy of African migrants drowning in the Mediterranean, the African leaders at the African Union summit in South Africa are unlikely to offer any solutions to the crisis, according to AFP.

In anticipation of the scheduled meeting between the AU and EU later in the year, the AU will discuss refugee issues in closed session on the first day of the nine day summit. However, due to the fact, most African leaders scorn human rights, there is a lack of competence and will to be critical of each other’s policies on refugee and immigration for fear of being seen as a mouthpiece of the West. Because of this and of course most African leaders lack of empathy for a commoner in their countries all efforts to combat the African refugee crises have been thwarted for now.

South African president Jacob Zuma, the host of the 25th African Union summit is not likely to take the lead on any pan-continental effort to tackle the refugee crisis, as he faces criticism over deadly xenophobic violence in his country earlier this year. After the xenophobic attacks in South Africa, President Jacob Zuma refused to accept blame and he was quoted as saying “As much as we can have a problem alleged to be xenophobic, our brother countries contributed to this,” he said. “Why are the citizens not in their countries?”. A problem Nigeria and Zimbabwe led the criticism against South Africa for not protecting their citizens after a series of anti-migrant attacks in January and April.

Tjiurimo Hengari, a research fellow at the South African Institute of International Affairs (SAIIA) said, “I am not sure to what extent the leaders can tell each other this type of uncomfortable truth, the solutions are mostly domestic, it’s about better governance. They need to tell each other: we need to promote inclusive growth, we need to promote good governance.”

Last weekend alone, 6,000 people, most of them sub-Saharan Africans, were pulled to safety from fishing boats and rubber dinghies off Libya. Nearly 1,800, mainly African and Middle Eastern refugees, have drowned in the Mediterranean this year.

Contact Us

The Editor

I'm a Gambian who wants one thing and only one thing, JUSTICE for my comrades, #10/11Apr2000 Victims.
On the 10th and 11th of April 2000, Sixteen (16) students, including a Red Cross volunteer were gunned down in the Gambia, broad daylight by the security forces, since then, the killers have been indemnified from prosecution by the Yahya Jammeh's government.
Gambia Voices is setup to seek justice for the students that were killed, maimed, tortured and jailed for only exercising their constitutional rights, by peacefully protesting and seeking answers from the authorities for the brutal killing a student Ebrima Barry and the raped of another student by security forces in the Gambia respectively.
Of course, the fight for justice goes further than that, as it include all other injustices that were and are being carried out on daily basis against the people of the Gambia. No relenting in our efforts to see justice serve for the #10/11Apr2000 victims.
Human rights are God given so we should all strive to uphold them. Each and everyone is welcome to join us in our fight and to give voice to all those voiceless Gambians regardless of their political, tribal, religious, race, gender, sex and age. You have a story to tell, feel free to contact us, be rest assured your privacy will be protected.
Email: gambiavoices@gmail.com
Twitter: @GambiaVoices
Facebook: facebook.com/gambiavoice
www.gambiavoices.com